gafconhttp://www.ekklesia.co.uk/taxonomy/term/6062/all
enAnglicanism: GAFCON, condemnation and communication http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/node/19311
<p><a href="http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/node/19311" target="_blank">read more</a></p>Religion and SocietyNews Briefanglican churchanglican communionAnglicanschurch of englandgafconBlogSun, 27 Oct 2013 20:59:30 +0000Savi Hensman19311 at http://www.ekklesia.co.ukOn the Archbishop’s Anglican reflectionshttp://www.ekklesia.co.uk/node/10056
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<p>A joint statement from groups working together in the Church of England</p>
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<p><em>A joint statement from groups working together in the Church of England</em></p>
<p>We have read and reflected upon the Archbishop’s response to the Episcopal Church of the USA “Communion, Covenant and our Anglican Future” and have a number of questions about the consequences of his response. We question whether the voices of those within the Church of England who are or who walk alongside lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans [gender] people have been adequately heard within the recent discussions. These discussions have gone on in various places around the Communion, and we believe it is important in this context that the LGBT faithful and those who work alongside us speak as well.</p>
<p>We wish to reaffirm our loyalty to the Gospel of Jesus Christ as revealed in the scriptures, our commitment to the Anglican way and our celebration of and thanksgiving for the tradition and life of the Church of England. Above all, our concern is for the mission of the Church in our world. We have no doubt that the Church of England is called to live out the Gospel values of love and justice in the whole of its life; these values are intrinsic to the calling of Jesus Christ to follow him and it is out of this context that we speak.</p>
<p>While we acknowledge the intention of the Archbishop of Canterbury to seek a way forward for the Anglican Communion, we have grave concerns about the implications of his reflections in “Covenant, Communion and the Anglican Future.” For example, we consider that references to same-sex unions as a “chosen life-style”, and assertions that those who have made such a commitment are analogous to “a heterosexual person living in a sexual relationship outside the marriage bond” to be inconsistent with the Archbishop’s previous statements on committed and faithful same sex relationships (<a href="http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article4473814.ece" title="http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article4473814.ece">http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article4473814.ece</a>) and are at odds with our reading of the message of the gospel. Whilst we applaud his assertion that we are called to “become the Church God wants us to be, for the better proclamation of the liberating gospel of Jesus Christ” we find no indication of how that can be achieved for those who are not heterosexual.</p>
<p>We acknowledge, once again, that there are and always have been, many loyal, committed and faithful bishops, priests and deacons – properly selected and ordained - and many lay people who are LGBT or who work alongside LGBT people with delight and thanksgiving. We know ourselves to be part of the church of God in England and we work, together, to bring about the reign of God in this part of God’s creation. We pray earnestly that the Church of England will continue to select, train, ordain and deploy LGBT people and enable them to exercise their calling from God in the Church of England.</p>
<p>Together, we reaffirm our commitment to working for the full inclusion of all people at all levels of ministry. We will continue to work towards liturgical and sacramental recognition of the God-given love which enables many LGBT couples to thrive. </p>
<p>We will seek to strengthen the bonds of affection which exist between those in all the Churches of the Anglican Communion who share our commitment to the full inclusion of all of God’s faithful. We will also continue to work closely with our brother and sister churches, especially those with whom we have mutual recognition of orders such as the Nordic churches.</p>
<p>We will work to ensure that if the Church of England is to sign up to the Covenant, it has potential for rapid progress on this and other issues. We find the notion of a “two track communion” flawed in the way that the Act of Synod is flawed, and we commit ourselves to continuing the effort to find ways forward through which those who disagree profoundly on this and on other issues can continue to celebrate their common membership of the Church of England and unity in Christ.</p>
<p>Signed by representatives of the following groups working together in the Church of England</p>
<p>Accepting Evangelicals</p>
<p>Changing Attitude</p>
<p>The Clergy Consultation</p>
<p>Courage</p>
<p>Ekklesia</p>
<p>Evangelical Fellowship of Lesbian and Gay Anglicans</p>
<p>General Synod Human Sexuality Group</p>
<p>Group for the Rescinding of the Act of Synod</p>
<p>Inclusive Church</p>
<p>Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement (Anglican Matters)</p>
<p>Modern Churchpeople’s Union</p>
<p>Sibyls</p>
<p>WATCH National Committee</p>
<p>----</p>
<p><em>Note:</em> Though we are a think-tank rather than a lobby group, bring together people from a number of backgrounds (not just Church of England) and are not funded by any denomination or interest group, Ekklesia is happy to be associated with this statement in an ecumenical spirit. We have also worked to present a fresh perspective alongside evangelical groups. Our own viewpoint on the sexuality row in church and society is reflected in the book <em>Fear or freedom? Why a warring church must change</em>, published last year with a preface by Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu - <a href="http://books.ekklesia.co.uk/product_info.php?products_id=2255" title="http://books.ekklesia.co.uk/product_info.php?products_id=2255">http://books.ekklesia.co.uk/product_info.php?products_id=2255</a></p>
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<!-- google_ad_section_end -->Religion and SocietySex and GenderNews Briefanglican communioncommunion covenant and our Anglican Futuregafcongay clergygay priestssexualityFeaturesWed, 05 Aug 2009 11:37:07 +0000staff writers10056 at http://www.ekklesia.co.ukHow evangelicals are betraying their heritagehttp://www.ekklesia.co.uk/news/columns/bartley/evangelical_heritage
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<p>The new coalition of evangelical and Anglo-Catholic parishes launched within the Church of England, claiming to uphold the "traditional biblical view" on homosexuality was unlikley to have been considered in times gone by, says Jonathan Bartley</p>
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<p>Two weeks ago a new coalition of evangelical and Anglo-Catholic parishes launched within the Church of England, claiming to uphold the "traditional biblical view" on homosexuality.</p>
<p>But such a coalition was unlikely to have beencontemplated by evangelicals at many times gone by. For the original evangelical spirit, with its reforming zeal and progressive outlook, was more often at odds with traditionalists, than aligned with them. The idea of an alliance with those of a conservative disposition would have been an anathema.</p>
<p>This should give evangelicals pause for thought. The new partnership is an indication of the extent to which evangelicals have turned their backs on their own heritage. Long gone are the Christian pioneers marked out by their radical and refreshing message of love. In their place stand backward looking, establishment figures intent on maintaining a certain religiosity.</p>
<p>Often quoted by evangelicals, particularly during the recent celebrations marking the anniversary of the end of the transatlantic slave trade, were the activities of the Clapham sect, maverick MP William Wilberforce and the wider movement which over decades brought significant reform and change. The presence of members of the church who were on the other side of the debate is often forgotten. And as with the current division over homosexuality, both sides used arguments from the Bible to make their case.</p>
<p>Only one side however, claimed to be upholding "traditional biblical morality" and that was the one which wanted to defend the church's involvement in perpetuating injustice. It was the establishment Christians, the conservatives, who defended the traditional religious ideas which brought pain and suffering to thousands. It was evangelicals who brought the new biblical interpretation.</p>
<p>Go back another hundred years and one finds that the origins of evangelicalism lay in its radical challenge to moralising legalism. John Wesley, with his message of justification by faith, was locked out of churches. His biblical message was believed by the religious to undermine morality, not uphold it.</p>
<p>The evangelical heritage, for all its faults, is a rich one. Much evangelical activism has been driven by love and concern for surrounding society. The huge outpouring of philanthropy in the 18th and 19th centuries laid many of the foundations for the welfare state. Historian Kathleen Heasman suggested that at least half of such activity was evangelical in character.</p>
<p>One might ask, as the new breed of establishment evangelicals launched its latest initiative, where the display of love was? Was it in the evangelical Bishop of Rochester's comments reported by the Daily Telegraph that gay people should repent?</p>
<p>Or was it perhaps in the groups of Christians who stood alongside the marginalised and attended the Gay Pride march in London wearing badges and stickers quoting verses from the Bible such as 1 John 4, 18: "Love drives out fear".</p>
<p>Evangelical leader John Stott defined evangelicals are "Bible people" and "Gospel people". The Bible and the Gospel are claimed by both sides in the debate about the place of gay men and women within the church. But neither side should forget that the Gospel, as defined by evangelicals long ago, offered a message of liberty in place of legalism and never belonged to those who excluded and condemned.</p>
<p>---------</p>
<p>This article first appeared in the Guardian's Comment Is Free. </p>
<p>(c) <strong>Jonathan Bartley</strong> is co-director of Ekklesia.</p>
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<!-- google_ad_section_end -->Religion and SocietyNews BriefevangelicalsfcagafconJonathan BartleyWed, 15 Jul 2009 10:23:51 +0000Jonathan Bartley9904 at http://www.ekklesia.co.ukBacklash grows against Nazir-Ali's call for gay "repentance"http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/node/9819
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<p>Michael Nazir-Ali, the Anglican Bishop of Rochester, is facing strong criticism from both Christian and secular quarters after calling on gay and lesbian people to “repent” of their sexuality.</p>
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<p>Michael Nazir-Ali, the Church of England's Bishop of Rochester, is under increasing pressure after calling on gay and lesbian people to “repent” of their sexuality. A number of Christian and secular groups, and human rights campaigners, have denounced the Bishop's remarks.</p>
<p>Nazir-Ali, who has made similarly controversial comments in the past, said in an interview with the Sunday Telegraph that the Church should “welcome homosexuals” but “we want them to repent and be changed”. </p>
<p>His comments appear to have been timed to fall the day after London's Gay Pride festival and the day before the launch of the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans, a new grouping of hardline conservatives opposed to the inclusion of gay, lesbian and bisexual people in the Church.</p>
<p>Sharon Ferguson of the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement (LGCM) said “It's like asking somebody to repent because they have blue eyes”. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, the veteran human rights activist Peter Tatchell called on Nazir-Ali to “repent his homophobia”. </p>
<p>He told Ekklesia that homophobes “have turned their back on the love and compassion that is central to the Christian Gospel.”</p>
<p>Nazir-Ali has announced his intention to step down as a Bishop and will be leaving the job in September. His latest intervention has fuelled speculation that he is seeking to lead an excessively conservative group which is semi-detached from the Church of England.</p>
<p>Symon Hill, associate director of the religion and society think-tank Ekklesia, said “Michael Nazir-Ali's provocative comments will not help Christians move forward in engaging with questions of sexuality." </p>
<p>He continued "The Bishop seems to be appealling to a group of hardliners. People of all sexual orientations should be made aware that Nazir-Ali's views are not representative of Christians generally.” </p>
<p>A number of critics pointed to the Bishop's selective use of the Bible. </p>
<p>“When he calls for the closure of all the banks, finance houses and credit card companies because of what it says in the Bible about usury, then I'll take him seriously” said Labour MEP Michael Cashman.</p>
<p>The Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans (FCA) was launched yesterday at a conference in London. It brought together a number of conservative Evangelicals and Anglo-Catholics who object to inclusive approaches to sexuality. </p>
<p>However, only a handful of bishops were in attendance. The Bishop of Sherborne, Graham Kings, himself an Evangelical, expressed grave doubts about the FCA, suggesting it could become “a Church within a Church”. </p>
<p>International messages of support were sent to the FCA's launch by a number of conservative Christian figures, including Peter Akinola, Archbishop of Nigeria, who recently refused to condemn physical violence against gay Nigerians. He has described gay people as “worse than animals”. </p>
<p>Further controversy ensued when the FCA claimed to have received a message of support from the Queen. Her press office said that this was merely the standard letter of encouragement she sent to Church of England events. However, Peter Tatchell suggested she had made “a serious error of judgment... and breached royal protocol by embroiling herself in an issue of religious and political controversy”.</p>
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<!-- google_ad_section_end -->Religion and SocietySex and GenderNews Briefbisexualfellowship of confessing anglicansgafcongayhomophobiahuman rightslesbiannazir-aliUK NewsTue, 07 Jul 2009 01:01:01 +0000staff writers9819 at http://www.ekklesia.co.ukSenior Evangelical Anglican bishop is annoyed by 'bullying' tacticshttp://www.ekklesia.co.uk/node/7440
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<p>The Rt Rev Dr Tom Wright, a leading Evangelical Anglican bishop in the Church of England has said that the tactics of a new factional network within Anglicanism amount to "bullying".</p>
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<p>The Rt Rev Dr Tom Wright, a leading Evangelical Anglican bishop in the Church of England has said that the tactics of a new factional network within Anglicanism amount to "bullying".</p>
<p>Speaking on the BBC's World at One news programme, the Bishop of Durham, the fourth most senior post in the Church of England, also a noted New Testament scholar, said that the action taken by leaders of the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON) were also "deeply offensive".</p>
<p>Dr Wright, a key figure for conservative evengelicals inside and outside Anglicanism, said that GADCON was "taking a global sledgehammer to crack the American nut" in setting up the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans (FOCA) - variously described as a breakaway, an alternative and a renewal movement. </p>
<p>The US reference was to the ordination of openly gay Bishop Gene Robinson of New Hampshire. </p>
<p>Dr Wright had earlier written a more friendly article on the GAFCON conference for the evangelical ginger group Fulcrum, which seeks to hraminsie different strands of the movement - itself sometimes deeply divided.</p>
<p>"I spend 90 to 100 hours a week doing the work of the gospel in my diocese," said Bishop Wright. "To be told that I now need to be authorised ... by a group of primates somewhere else who come in and tell me which doctrines I should sign up to is not only ridiculous, it is deeply offensive." </p>
<p>He added: "The idea that they have a monopoly on biblical truth simply won't do. We must stand up to this. It is a kind of bullying."</p>
<p><strong>The book <em><a href="http://books.ekklesia.co.uk/product_info.php?products_id=2255">Fear or Freedom? Why a warring church must change</a></em>, edited by Simon Barrow, is published by Shoving Leopard / Ekklesia.</strong></p>
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<!-- google_ad_section_end -->Religion and SocietyNews Briefanglicanfear or freedomfocagafcontom wrightUK NewsSat, 05 Jul 2008 00:00:32 +0000staff writers7440 at http://www.ekklesia.co.ukFracas at London church meeting about hardline Anglican grouphttp://www.ekklesia.co.uk/node/7423
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<p>Human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell says that he was "violently ejected" from a major London evangelical church after seeking to mount a protest against a hardline Anglican group.</p>
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<p>Human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell says that he was "violently ejected" from a major London evangelical church after seeking to mount a protest against a hardline Anglican group.</p>
<p>The incident happened at All Souls Church, Langham Place, opposite the BBC, when a meeting of Church of England clergy and church wardens concerning the newly formed Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans (FOCA) was picketed by the OutRage! gay rights group, including African activist Brett Lock and gay Christian campaigner, Kizza Musinguzi.</p>
<p>The church has also received letters of objection to its hosting of the meeting from evaneglicals and other Christians, Ekklesia has learned.</p>
<p>David W. Talbot has written an open letter to the Rector, declaring: "[I]t saddens me that All Souls would want to endorse this .. event." </p>
<p>"It is a shame that the Anglican Church and, on this occasion, All Souls in particular, continues to deny the God-given reality of homosexuality and [God's] blessing that gay Christians know in their daily lives. I have looked at the list of speakers at the conference and see no hope of a contrasting Biblical view being put forward." </p>
<p>"As a former worshipper at All Souls’ and as a gay Evangelical, it disappoints me that your church is willing to contribute today to the destructive persecution of gay Christians and the fragmentation of the Anglican Church worldwide," Mr Talbot concluded.</p>
<p>When they tried to enter the famous church, Mr Tatchell and his colleagues were forcibly removed and Mr Tatchell punched in the chest by a church steward, says OutRage!</p>
<p>"Archbishop Peter Akinola is backing the state-sponsored persecution of lesbians and gays in Nigeria. He is orchestrating a wicked victimisation campaign against the Nigerian gay Christian leader, Davis Mac-Iyalla, Director of Changing Attitude Nigeria," said Mr Tatchell.</p>
<p>"The Archisbishop of Uganda, Henry Orombi, has stirred up prejudice against gay Ugandans in a society where anti-gay hatred and violence is rife," he added. </p>
<p>"In 2006, he excommunicated a heterosexual bishop, Christopher Senyonjo, because he defended gay people against persecution. Jesus Christ is recorded in The Bible as condemning many sins but he never once condemned homosexuality. The anti-gay campaign of the breakaway Anglican leaders is a perversion of Christ's gospel of love and compassion. These splitters are Old Testament fundamentalists, not true followers of Jesus Christ," declared Mr Tatchell.</p>
<p>Kizza Musinguzi is a gay member of the Anglican Church of Uganda. He has witnessed first hand the homophobic campaign by his church leaders. Mr Musinguzi was jailed and tortured in Uganda because of his gay rights activism. He is currently seeking asylum in the UK.</p>
<p>"The church is supposed to be all-loving. It is not acceptable that it has one set of rights for straight Christians and a lesser set of rights for gay Christians," said Mr Musinguzi.</p>
<p>He added: "When Archbishop Orombi takes a stand against gay people, he signals to the population that it is okay to discriminate against gay people. He supports Uganda's vicious anti-gay laws, which stipulate life imprisonment for consenting same-sex relationships. Orombi is encouraging prejudice and hatred. His victimisation of Bishop Senyonjo is cruel and vindictive."</p>
<p>"Gay people in Uganda face imprisonment, torture and mob violence. Many are driven out their communities and left destitute. The government excludes gay people from its HIV programmes, leaving them to die without medication. The Church of Uganda is exacerbating this homophobia, neglect and persecution," said Mr Musinguzi.</p>
<p>All Souls has in the past been seen as the "cathedral church" of Anglican Evangelicalism, launching the global ministry of the Rev Dr John Stott.</p>
<p>In the 1960s and '70s Dr Stott opposed those evangelicals who wished to split from the Church of England, under the influence of Calvinist preacher Dr Martyn Lloyd Jones.</p>
<p>In recent years, evangelicals - who stress the Bible and personal conversion - have increasingly fragmented into distinct groups, sometimes distinguished as "open", "conservative" and "charismatic". </p>
<p>In a carefully worded statement published on the website of Fulcrum, a network that seeks to unite Anglican evangelical opinion, but is seen as more on the "open wing", Bishop of Durham Dr Tom Wright urged GAFCON and FOCA not to split the Anglican Communion.</p>
<p>He wrote: "if GAFCON is to join up with the great majority of faithful, joyful Anglicans around the world, rather than to invite them to leave their present allegiance and sign up to a movement which is as yet - to put it mildly - strange in form and uncertain in destination, it is not so much that GAFCON needs to invite others to sign up and join in. Bishops, clergy and congregations should think very carefully before taking such a step, which will have enormous and confusing consequences. Rather, GAFCON itself needs to bring its rich experience and gospel-driven exuberance to the larger party where the rest of us are working day and night for the same gospel."</p>
<p><strong>The book <em><a href="http://books.ekklesia.co.uk/product_info.php?products_id=2255">Fear or Freedom? Why a warring church must change</a></em>, edited by Simon Barrow, is published by Shoving Leopard / Ekklesia.</strong></p>
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<!-- google_ad_section_end -->Religion and SocietyNews Briefall souls langham placeanglican communionevangelicalsfellowship of confessing anglicansgafconjerusalemjohn stottPeter TatchellUK NewsWed, 02 Jul 2008 16:10:35 +0000staff writers7423 at http://www.ekklesia.co.ukWhose mission is it anyway?http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/node/7417
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<p>Some sections of the Anglican Communion are convinced that only their narrow vision of what is permissible in faithfulness to the Christian message is adequate, says Simon Barrow. But they are confounded by the biblical texts they claim loyalty to.</p>
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<p><em>Some sections of the Anglican Communion are convinced that only their narrow vision of what is permissible in faithfulness to the Christian message is adequate. Those who disagree must be excised or shunned. We have been here before. Indeed the first Council of the early church in Jerusalem had to confront deep divisions over the meaning of the Gospel - and came up with what some would these days dismiss as a 'fudge'. Actually, it may have been rather radical. This is a sermon for the Feast of St Peter and St Paul (who were sometimes at each others' throats), based on the following lectionary texts: Zechariah. 4.1-6a, 10b – end; Acts 12.1-11; 2 Timothy 4.6-8, 17-18; Matthew 16.13-19. </em></p>
<p>It is an interesting feature of our modern culture, one fast losing touch with the religious vocabulary its older generations were raised on, that it often re-appropriates or re-shapes terms previously anchored in scriptural and ecclesiastical traditions.</p>
<p>Take ‘mission’, for example. In spite of waves of scepticism about ‘management speak’, the word remains ubiquitous in the business world, in voluntary organisations and among project developers – where a clear ‘mission statement’ – a forthright declaration of purpose that is specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time-bound (“smart”, as the acronym has it) – is central to the understanding of a well-run, well-directed organisation.</p>
<p>In Christian circles, however, mission is often a divisive rather than a unifying concept, with some regarding it as a mandate to bring out their sledgehammers, and others avoiding it like the plague! So if the secular world has turned ‘mission’ into a matter of money, measurability and mastery (obsessions which can be equally tempting for church leaders), Christians have often behaved as if the choice is somehow between bludgeoning people in the kingdom of God or finding it too embarrassing to mention God at all. Some better ways forward are surely needed. </p>
<p>But if we expect to turn to the New Testament for neat alternatives, we are liable to be disappointed. First, because the arguments and differences of perspective which we find in today’s churches are equally present (albeit in significantly different form) among those who first sought to live out and communicate the Gospel, the evangel, the good news in a strange world. Second because, far from being preoccupied with sustainable organisational development, the first apostles were often having to contend with the menace of kings (“about this time, Herod launched an attack upon certain members of the church”, we read in Acts), the reality of exhaustion (“my life is already being poured out upon the altar,” Paul writes to Timothy), or the threat of betrayal (Peter’s great confession is soon found wanting in the most dramatic way possible as Jesus faces his death). </p>
<p>On 29 June we commemorate the deaths of both Peter and Paul, whose missions were not realised by the founding of an impregnable institution (no matter what was later said) but by diverging commitments exercised in great faithfulness to the truth of God’s person, Jesus Christ – and therefore of persons per se, those with whom God consorts “in the flesh” in many unlikely ways, says the Gospel. </p>
<p>The specific date is the anniversary of a day around 258 CE, under the Valerian persecution, when what were believed to be the remains of the two great apostles were moved temporarily to prevent them from falling into the hands of their persecutors. There is no scriptural record of the deaths of any of the apostles, other than James the son of Zebedee in Acts 12.2, but they are certainly anticipated. The news of God’s rule of love is not good for those who have other plans for dominion. Early tradition says Peter and Paul were martyred at Rome at the command of the Emperor Nero, and buried there. </p>
<p>The Gospel can be a dangerous business, then. And the danger does not just come from without. It is possible that both Paul and Ignatius, pioneers in the controversial Gentile mission, died in partial consequence of the betrayal of Jewish Christians (those loyal to James and Peter). Similarly, the followers of Paul who helped shape the Johannine tradition existed in great enmity with Jewish Christians – as texts from St John which speak harshly of “the Jews”, and which were disastrously deployed in the twentieth century, make plain. </p>
<p>Conflict, then, is at the heart of the Christian story. It is not new, and it can be deadly. How, then, do we handle it? That is the question confronting Anglicans and others right now. The fact that the recent gathering of those who want to see stricter rules and expulsions, to resolve disagreements about who is and who is not welcome at the table of Christ, has been taking place in Jerusalem is especially poignant. For Jerusalem and Antioch were the two places where arguments over the distinct missions of Peter and Paul took shape – one resting on the conviction that adherence to inherited Jewish rituals and codes was crucial to Christian integrity in the future, the other believing that experimentation, change and development were possible according to the operation of the Spirit. </p>
<p>In this struggle, Paul was a liberal and Peter was a conservative, says modern typology. As with today, the reality was much more complicated. The Council of Jerusalem in Acts 15 (which is a bit hard to tie up with other accounts of the arguments) looks like a classic Anglican-style fudge. Paul, who seems to have lost the tussle in Galatia, not least because he had little scriptural precedent on his side, was allowed to continue his work from several centres in the East Mediterranean without making circumcision a requirement, while the Jerusalem church retained a strong traditional identity. </p>
<p>However, the Council did retain prohibitions against Gentile converts eating meat containing blood, or meat of animals not properly slain. But Paul seems to ignore this among the Corinthians. Likewise, he opposes circumcision in Philippians (“mutilation” he calls it), while praising the same in the different context of Romans and permitting Timothy to undergo the ritual in Acts 16. He was, it seems, a pragmatist and a radical all at once. And while he may have lost influence in Antioch, his revisionism won out in the end – otherwise we, here, might still be eating kosher food. Peter too, whose restrictive ethic was dubbed “clearly wrong” by Paul in Galatians, was prepared to put aside his reservations in the particular case of the converted Roman centurion Cornelius, when a dream persuaded him to relax his attitude to ritual purity.</p>
<p>What Peter says when he sees the undeniable faith of a pagan is, “Who was I to hinder God?” But Paul was the one to recognise most forcefully that, in practice, the love of Christ is larger than our social, cultural and, yes, religious limitations. For social reasons, God-fearing gentiles were not able to become full Jewish proselytes. Nevertheless they were attracted to the monotheism and the ethical rigour of the faith. By sitting on its edges they were therefore able to benefit without having to betray their own cultural heritage. So it was to the edges that Paul went, to discover God at work where many least expected it. The result was that less than 20 years after the death of Jesus, pagans and Jews were sharing table fellowship in Syria. </p>
<p>This should have been unthinkable, and to the purists and rigorists it was. But Paul, remember, preached about of a Jewish reform prophet embodying acceptance by God and triumphing over the power of death without a total embracing of the weight of the Law as a precondition. This was manna from heaven. It pulled in recruits from the gentile fringe while having relatively little impact among the Jews. </p>
<p>What does all this have to teach us today? Well, it might suggest to us that Jerusalem isn’t always right – or wrong! It might make us ponder the idea that if we take the Bible seriously, then scriptural precedent, as St Paul shows, should not become an obstacle to the Good News and to God’s gracious work among those we may have come to think of as unclean or unworthy. The mission of Acts is to the ends of the earth, not to the end of our tethers. Certainly, it should make us question those ‘liberal’ and ‘conservative’ labels that get used these days to tell us who the goodies and baddies are. When the Gospel of God’s life-changing love in Christ is unleashed it subverts those categories too, which is why people who posit Jesus against Paul and then dismiss Paul in the name of progress are so mistaken, it seems to me.</p>
<p>I have no idea whether the Anglican Communion will hold together after the next Lambeth Conference. Part of me, to be honest, almost no longer cares. The sight of Christians tearing each other apart is so distressing and counterproductive, that going on perpetuating it through structures and resolutions which bear little relationship to the reality of who we are seems to me to miss the point entirely. That said, I have no wish to excise those I disagree with from the Body of Christ. Peter and Paul, I suggested earlier, held “diverging commitments exercised in great faithfulness to the truth of a person” – Jesus Christ. “And you… who do you say I am?” Jesus asks Peter, and us, according to Matthew.</p>
<p>The answer is that Jesus is the one who leads us beyond what we imagine of limited persons and into the very heart of God. He is the Messiah, the offspring of the Most High – the decisive evidence that God blesses the messy vulnerability of texts, history and flesh; so that none of us dare limit the love that can bend the divine to reach lower than we could ever hope to stoop.</p>
<p>But there is a warning attached to this. In receiving the kingdom of God and preaching it, as we are bound to do, we will continue to draw circles that some will fall within and some without. And for this we are answerable before heaven, as Peter was when the cock crowed before Gethsemane, and as Paul was when he decided to break the religious rules and to join with those who told Emperors that there is another kind of king, Jesus. </p>
<p>Jesus, remember, was clear that the Spirit of the Lord was calling him to proclaim good news to the poor, not the self-satisfied; the sick and the subjugated, not the well and the worthy. In following this Jesus, we will take risks and make mistakes. But that is not the worst thing. The worst thing is to think that it is our rules, structures and institutions, rather than God’s capacity to remake lives, forgive sins and free us from bondage, that really counts.</p>
<p>For “all at once, a messenger of the Lord stood there and the cell was ablaze with light. He tapped Peter on the shoulder to wake him. ‘Quick! Get up!’ he said, and the chains fell away from Peter…”</p>
<p>-------------</p>
<p>(c) <strong>Simon Barrow</strong> is co-director of Ekklesia. He blogs at <a href="http://faithinsociety.blogspot.com" title="http://faithinsociety.blogspot.com">http://faithinsociety.blogspot.com</a> and his website is at <a href="http://www.simonbarrow.net" title="http://www.simonbarrow.net">http://www.simonbarrow.net</a>. This article is adapted from an address given at St Mary Arches Anglican Church, Central Exeter, on 29 June 2008. <a href="http://www.stephenproject.org.uk/" title="http://www.stephenproject.org.uk/">http://www.stephenproject.org.uk/</a> The new book <em><a href="http://books.ekklesia.co.uk/product_info.php?products_id=2255">Fear or Freedom? Why a warring church must change</a></em>, edited by Simon Barrow, is published by Shoving Leopard / Ekklesia.</p>
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<!-- google_ad_section_end -->Religion and SocietyNews Briefanglican communionbiblegafcongospelJesusmissionmissionaryNew TestamentSimon BarrowSt Paulst peterTue, 01 Jul 2008 15:21:32 +0000Simon Barrow7417 at http://www.ekklesia.co.ukArchbishop of Canterbury says GAFCON declaration 'problematic'http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/node/7409
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<p>The Archbishop of Canterbury has responded to the GAFCON declaration which proposes forming a council of bishops to provide an alternative to churches they say are preaching a 'false gospel' concerning homosexuality.</p>
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<p>The Archbishop of Canterbury has responded to the declaration made by Conservative Anglican leaders in Jerusalem yesterday, who propose forming a council of bishops to provide an alternative to churches they say are preaching a 'false gospel' concerning homosexuality.</p>
<p>In a statement Dr Rowan Williams said that the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON) declaration was theologically and practically 'problematic' and it was wrong to assume that those outside the GAFCON network were 'proclaiming another gospel'.</p>
<p>"GAFCON's proposals for the way ahead are problematic in all sorts of ways" he said, "and I urge those who have outlined these to think very carefully about the risks entailed. </p>
<p>"A 'Primates' Council' which consists only of a self-selected group from among the Primates of the Communion will not pass the test of legitimacy for all in the Communion. And any claim to be free to operate across provincial boundaries is fraught with difficulties, both theological and practical - theological because of our historic commitments to mutual recognition of ministries in the Communion, practical because of the obvious strain of responsibly exercising episcopal or primatial authority across enormous geographical and cultural divides" he said.</p>
<p>"Two questions arise at once about what has been proposed. By what authority are Primates deemed acceptable or unacceptable members of any new primatial council? And how is effective discipline to be maintained in a situation of overlapping and competing jurisdictions?" the Archbishop continued.</p>
<p>"It is not enough to dismiss the existing structures of the Communion. If they are not working effectively, the challenge is to renew them rather than to improvise solutions that may seem to be effective for some in the short term but will continue to create more problems than they solve" he said. </p>
<p>"I believe that it is wrong to assume we are now so far apart that all those outside the GAFCON network are simply proclaiming another gospel.</p>
<p>"This is not the case; it is not the experience of millions of faithful and biblically focused Anglicans in every province. What is true is that, on all sides of our controversies, slogans, misrepresentations and caricatures abound. And they need to be challenged in the name of the respect and patience we owe to each other in Jesus Christ."</p>
<p><em>Also from Ekklesia:</em> Simon Barrow, 'Whose mission is it anyway?' - <a href="http://ekklesia.co.uk/node/7417" title="http://ekklesia.co.uk/node/7417">http://ekklesia.co.uk/node/7417</a></p>
<p><strong>The book <em><a href="http://books.ekklesia.co.uk/product_info.php?products_id=2255">Fear or Freedom? Why a warring church must change</a></em>, edited by Simon Barrow, is published by Shoving Leopard / Ekklesia.</strong></p>
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<!-- google_ad_section_end -->Religion and SocietyNews Briefarchbishop of canterburygafconUK NewsMon, 30 Jun 2008 17:13:45 +0000staff writers7409 at http://www.ekklesia.co.ukMugabe condemns Williams and sides with anti-gay Anglicanshttp://www.ekklesia.co.uk/node/7391
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<p>In a campaign comment ahead of today's election in Zimbabwe, President Robert Mugabe has condemned Archbishop Rowan Williams as lacking a "moral compass" and said that gays in the church are a sign of "moral degeneracy".</p>
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<p>In a campaign comment ahead of today's uncontested election in Zimbabwe, President Robert Mugabe has condemned Archbishop Rowan Williams as lacking a "moral compass" and said that gays in the church are a sign of "moral degeneracy".</p>
<p>The embarrassing endorsement of their cause, shown on Channel 4 television news in Britain and elsewhere last night, came as hard-line Anglicans have been meeting in Jerusalem. </p>
<p>In the past, anti-gay and homophobic rhetoric has formed a strong part of Mr Mugabe's attack against the West and against the human rights standards advocated by the international community.</p>
<p>British gay and human rights activist Peter Tatchell has been badly beaten by the dictator's security staff trying to make a "citizen's arrest" of Mugabe for his abuse and crimes against sexual minorities.</p>
<p>The comments came after two African archbishops declined opportunities given at a press conference earlier this week to condemn violence against lesbian and gay people, saying that it was not the churches' business to get involved in arguments with governments. </p>
<p>Speaking with them, conservative Archbishop Jensen from Australia made his own condemnation clear - as have other evangelical leaders.</p>
<p>Writing on the Guardian newspaper website, evangelical Christian Iain Baxter, who describes himself as "not a typical gay activist" describes his own presence with the media in Jerusalem for the Global Anglican Futures Conference - a gathering of those who want to see a much tougher and more restrictive policy for the 78 million Communion. </p>
<p>Mr Baxter has been reporting for the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement in the UK, though he himself is based in Egypt.</p>
<p>Along with Guardian religion correspondent Riazat Butt, a Muslim, he was the reporter asking pointed questions to Archbishops Peter Akinola of Nigeria and Henry Orombi of Uganda over violence against gays.</p>
<p>Mr Baxter wrote yesterday: "I am an evangelical because I believe in the supernatural power of God to change people. I believe that God revealed himself in Jesus and showed his love by even being prepared to die for us. I believe that this was more than the action of a great man, and that this is demonstrated by his rising from the dead. These are orthodox Christian views that I share with Christians all over the world. I also believe that it is not wrong to be gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender."</p>
<p>He added: "I am marching in the Jerusalem pride march today [26 June 2008] because, as a Christian, I believe that Jesus came to set people free from legalism, that God loves us just as we are. Jesus said the greatest commandment was to 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and all your soul, and all your mind'. And the second was like it: 'Love your neighbour as yourself'."</p>
<p>Though hardliners regularly accuse all their opponents of being 'liberal', a growing number of conservative and evangelical Christians have been calling for the churches to have a change of heart and mind on the sexuality issue - including Presbyterian theologian Dr Jack Rogers and the British group Accepting Evangelicals.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, President Mugabe's endorsement of their cause will be of little succour to anti-gay activists.</p>
<p>In a paper published by the UK religion and society think-tank today, Savitri Hensman, who lives and works in Britain but was born in Sri Lanka, writes: "This has sometimes been portrayed as a conflict between ‘conservatives’ and ‘liberals’. Yet those arguing contrary views tend to emphasise some aspects of tradition and reject others: both could be regarded as conservative in certain ways, liberal or radical in others. And there are churchgoers who are quite conservative on many matters yet who are far from happy with the approach to Anglicanism adopted by some reform movements seeking to rid the church of ‘liberalism’."</p>
<p>Her research essay, <a href="http://ekklesia.co.uk/node/7386">'Tradition, change and the new Anglicanism'</a>, locates 'Anglican wars' in the larger arena of the church's long history, the struggle against authoritarianism and the global quest for human rights. </p>
<p>---------- </p>
<p><em>Read Iain Baxter's full article:</em> <a href="http://tinyurl.com/5af3p2" title="http://tinyurl.com/5af3p2">http://tinyurl.com/5af3p2</a> and Savi Hensman's research: <a href="http://ekklesia.co.uk/node/7386" title="http://ekklesia.co.uk/node/7386">http://ekklesia.co.uk/node/7386</a></p>
<p><strong><em><a href="http://books.ekklesia.co.uk/product_info.php?products_id=2255">Fear or Freedom? Why a warring church must change</a></em>, edited by Simon Barrow (Shoving Leopard / Ekklesia, 2008) – available in the UK from <a href="http://tinyurl.com/4h7hw7">Metanoia Book Service</a>, and elsewhere via <a href="http://tinyurl.com/4cgd7o">Amazon</a>.</strong></p>
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<!-- google_ad_section_end -->People and PowerReligion and SocietyNews BriefAnglicansanti-gayevangelicalsgafconhomophobiaHomosexualityjensenLesbian and Gay Christian Movementmark russellsexualityWorld NewsFri, 27 Jun 2008 09:03:17 +0000staff writers7391 at http://www.ekklesia.co.ukTradition, change and the new Anglicanismhttp://www.ekklesia.co.uk/node/7386
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<div class="field-item"><p>The global media are largely interpreting the current fissures within the worldwide Anglican Communion as a struggle between ‘traditionalists’ and ‘revisionists’, ‘conservatives’ and ‘liberals’, ‘evangelicals’ and modernists’. In this thoughtful paper, Savitri Hensman shows that these are unhelpful caricatures, and that what is at stake is something far larger than an argument within one denomination. It is about the nature of Christianity in a fast-changing contemporary world, the dangers of simplistic readings of the Bible, the historic threat of authoritarianism, the challenge of human rights, and the tension between the establishment instincts of many Christians institutions and its radical, transformative roots in the life-changing story and flesh of Jesus. This reading of the situation within Anglicanism and in a broader context will assist commentators, researchers, journalists, concerned observers of many stances, and all who are interested in how the relationship between religion and society is changing after Christendom. The paper complements the author’s contributions to the new book <em><a href="http://books.ekklesia.co.uk/product_info.php?products_id=2255">Fear or Freedom? Why a warring church must change</a></em>, edited by Simon Barrow (Shoving Leopard / Ekklesia, 2008) – available in the UK from <a href="http://tinyurl.com/4h7hw7">Metanoia Book Service</a>, and elsewhere via <a href="http://tinyurl.com/4cgd7o">Amazon</a>. </p>
<p>The full document is available as a *.PDF (Adobe Acrobat) file here: </p>
<p><strong> <a href="http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/files/newanglicanism.pdf" title="http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/files/newanglicanism.pdf">http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/files/newanglicanism.pdf</a> </strong></p>
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<div class="field-item"><a href="/user/13" title="View user profile.">Savi Hensman</a></div>
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Religion and SocietySex and GendergafconLambeth Conferencenew anglicanismResearchThu, 26 Jun 2008 16:44:13 +0000Savi Hensman7386 at http://www.ekklesia.co.ukEvangelical leader criticises failure to condemn violence against gayshttp://www.ekklesia.co.uk/node/7382
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<p>The head of the Church Army, a leading Anglican mission agency with a significant evangelical constituency, has expressed his distress at the failure of two Anglican archbishops to clearly condemn violence against gay people.</p>
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<p>The head of the Church Army, a leading Anglican mission agency with a significant evangelical constituency, has expressed his distress at the failure of two Anglican archbishops to clearly condemn violence against gay people.</p>
<p>The remarks come in the personal blog of Mark Russell, the youngest ever Chief Executive of Church Army, which deploys over 350 evangelists working across Britain and Ireland.</p>
<p>Mr Russell's comments came after Archbishops Peter Akinola of Nigeria and Henry Orombi of Uganda declined to condemn violence against lesbians and gays when challenged twice on the issue at the Global Anglican Future Conference meeting in Jerusalem earlier this week.</p>
<p>Encouraging bishops of all opinions to go to the Lambeth Conference "to further the Gospel and show Christ to the world", Mark Russell wrote: "I know many bishops in England who do not agree with everything other bishops say, or do not agree with some of the things they have done, but are committed to being together, to pray together, and to seek to demonstrate Christian love to their flocks. I commend them for their leadership and Godly example."</p>
<p>He continued: "[This] is in marked contrast to some bishops at GAFCON who refused to condemn violence against gay people in their home countries. Quite honestly that is disgraceful, it sullies their cause, and is totally un-Christian. You cannot justify violence in God's name. Period. To the eternal credit of Archbishop Peter Jensen of Sydney, he condemned the violence ... Those who perpetrate violence against gay people in Africa now can use this silence to justify their behaviour. Christians must speak up and say this is wrong."</p>
<p>Many evangelicals have questioned the content and tenor of the anti-gay rhetoric coming from GAFCON supporters, belying the media image that this is a simple 'liberal versus conservative' issue. </p>
<p>Bishop David Atkinson of Thetford is among evangelical Anglican scholars whose views have changed on the issue. Outside the Anglican world, Dr Jack Rogers, Professor of Theology Emeritus at San Francisco Theological Seminary, has called for a change of heart and mind among traditional believers, as has the UK group Accepting Evangelicals - which affirms committed gay relationships. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, the Bishop of Rochester, Dr Michael Nazir-Ali, has continued to express concerns that the Western church is allowing Christianity to be eroded by modern culture, and Canon Vinay Samuel has suggested that the Archbishop of Canterbury's role is a colonial hangover. </p>
<p>--------</p>
<p>Mark Russell on 'The Countdown to Lambeth': <a href="http://russellmark.blogspot.com/2008/06/countdown-to-lambeth.html" title="http://russellmark.blogspot.com/2008/06/countdown-to-lambeth.html">http://russellmark.blogspot.com/2008/06/countdown-to-lambeth.html</a><br />
The blog has no official link to Church Army and the views on it are those of the author.</p>
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<p><strong><em><a href="http://books.ekklesia.co.uk/product_info.php?products_id=2255">Fear or Freedom? Why a warring church must change</a></em>, edited by Simon Barrow, is published by Shoving Leopard / Ekklesia on 30 June 2008.</strong></p>
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<!-- google_ad_section_end -->Religion and SocietyNews Briefanglican communionarchbishop of canterburychurch armyevangelicalevangelismgafconHomosexualityLambethmark russellnazir-alisexualityUK NewsThu, 26 Jun 2008 09:18:50 +0000staff writers7382 at http://www.ekklesia.co.ukArchbishops fail to condemn violence against lesbians and gayshttp://www.ekklesia.co.uk/node/7356
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<p>Archbishops Peter Akinola of Nigeria and Henry Orombi of Uganda have declined to condemn violence against lesbian and gay men and women during a press conference at the GAFCON meeting in Jerusalem.</p>
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<p>Archbishops Peter Akinola of Nigeria and Henry Orombi of Uganda have declined to condemn violence against lesbian and gay men and women.</p>
<p>The incident occurred following questions put to them yesterday during a press conference at the Global Anglican Future Conference GAFCON, in Jerusalem.</p>
<p>At the press conference Iain Baxter of the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement (LGCM) from the UK asked the Archbishops how they reconciled their faith with their support for jailing lesbian and gay people, which had led to cases of rape and torture. </p>
<p>He also asked why they had refused to speak out against such incidents which had taken place in their respective countries.</p>
<p>In response Archbishop Peter Akinola said that he was not aware of any such incidents anywhere in Africa. He also said he was unaware that anyone had been imprisoned for being gay or lesbian.</p>
<p>When given the example of a lesbian women from Uganda who had applied for asylum in the UK after being jailed, raped in the police station, and marched for two miles naked through the streets of Uganda, Archbishop Akinola said: "That's one example. The laws in your countries say that homosexual acts, actions are punishable by various rules. I don't need to argue." </p>
<p>"If the practice (homosexuality) is now found to be in our society" he continued, "it is of service to be against it. Alright, and to that extent what my understanding is, is that those that are responsible for law and order will want to prevent wholesale importation of foreign practices and traditions, that are not consistent with native standards, native way of life."</p>
<p>Archbishop Henry Orombi said it was not possible, or the church's role in Uganda, to speak out favourably about gay and lesbian people. "The church's practice is to preach, to proclaim" he said, "so that people who find themselves in a position where they go away from the word of God, the same word of God can bring them back to life. And that is in Uganda as already Archbishop Akinola is saying."</p>
<p>During the press conference an intervention was also made by Riazat Butt of the UK's Guardian newspaper who pointed out that the Archbishops had not condemned the torture and rape of Lesbian and Gay men and women. </p>
<p>Archbishop Henry Orombi said in response: "I would not believe a thing like that is done in the public knowledge of the people of Uganda because the gay people who are Ugandans are citizens of the country and we would cherish the fact that we would want to send it our people. For some of those things probably you get information in England and we may not even get information, I don't know how they get their information."</p>
<p>Archbishop of Sydney, Peter Jenson, however subsequently intervened. </p>
<p>"Can I add to that, because I think it needs to be said, on behalf of these brothers, if not by themselves, any violence against any person, is in Christian terms wrong" he said. </p>
<p>------</p>
<p><strong><em><a href="http://books.ekklesia.co.uk/product_info.php?products_id=2255">Fear or Freedom? Why a warring church must change</a></em>, edited by Simon Barrow, is published by Shoving Leopard / Ekklesia on 30 June 2008.</strong></p>
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<p><em>The full transcribed text of the exchange is reproduced below:</em></p>
<p>Responses of Archbishops Peter Akinola of Nigeria and Henry Orombi of Uganda to question asked at GAFCON press conference 22.06.08</p>
<p>Iain Baxter, Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement.<br />
One of the things in "The Way, the Truth and the Life," one of the key points that you've written is to "prepare for an Anglican future in which the Gospel is uncompromised and Christ-centred" But the gospel is already compromised by bishops who support the jailing of lesbian and gay people throughout Africa, which then leads to rape, which leads to torture of people and yet they are not prepared to speak out against this and change the laws in their countries.</p>
<p>Archbishop Peter Akinola of Nigeria: I am not aware of any.</p>
<p>Iain Baxter: You're not aware of any who are in jail for being lesbian or gay?</p>
<p>PA: I am not aware of any.</p>
<p>IB: But these are the laws in your countries.</p>
<p>PA: But where, give me an example?</p>
<p>IB: I can give you an example: one woman who has claimed asylum in the United Kingdom, she has applied for asylum, her name is Prossy, she is a Ugandan lesbian, she has been… first of all she was jailed, she was raped in the police station, before that she was marched for two miles naked through the streets of Uganda, the British government has accepted this, the fact that she was tortured, and have agreed this in her asylum application, but however they are saying she could be sent back safely to a different village in Uganda and she is appealing.</p>
<p>That's one example. The laws in your countries say that homosexual acts, actions are punishable by various rules. I don't need to argue. Do you support these laws, or do you think they should be repealed?</p>
<p>PA: OK. Every community, every society, has its own standards of life. In ancient African societies we had what are called "taboos", things you should not do, and if you break the taboos there are consequences.</p>
<p>Alright, so in your Western society many of these have arisen but in some of our African societies many things have not arisen and this happens to be one of them. In fact the word in our language does not exist in our language. So if the practice is now found to be in our society it is of service to be against it. Alright, and to that extent what my understanding is, is that those that are responsible for law and order will want to prevent wholesale importation of foreign practices and traditions, that are not consistent with native standards, native way of life.</p>
<p>So if you say it is good for you, it is not good for us …. If they say it is not right for our societies then it's not right, and that's it..</p>
<p>Archbishop Henry Orombi, Uganda:</p>
<p>Can I just come back to say that, that's an example given for my country. There's very little influence to stop the legislation of a law, an institute, in practice by the church. The church's practice is to preach, to proclaim, so that people who find themselves in a position where they go away from the word of God, the same word of God can bring them back to life. And that is in Uganda as already Archbishop Akinola is saying.</p>
<p>I would be in trouble if I were to say to my people in Uganda that tomorrow I can officiate at a same-sex marriage in my church. First of all the church will be closed.. Two, I might even be fired from my job because the question they are going to ask me is "Have you not read the word of God? And teach us now."</p>
<p>Simply saying that the Christian faith that we practice, which was brought from the West, by the way, taught us what biblically sexuality is. We've embraced that faith, we are practicing that faith, and moving away from that faith would be a contradiction to what we have inherited. First of all our communities will not accept them because they will want to let them know that if that is your orientation you can come back to life. It's a possibility there. We believe there is<br />
a possibility culturally. Secondly, we believe there is a possibility according to Christian faith. And we believe that, that God can bring you back when you have gone out of what is supposed to be intended by God. Now there is a complement in believing there is transformation, there is restoration, that makes us stand on the word of God which can bring change to people, as it has done to us over a period of time.</p>
<p>When we first received missionaries, way back, if we go back to 1886 we had a young man and a king and he wanted to have a sexual, homosexual, relationship with him. Now this young man had already taken a new standard of Christian faith and said "No we can't do that because the word of God says this." They paid for their lives. This man on the 3rd of June was commemorated and about a million people went to remember them. So the thing which is plain in our African society, other than government rule, it is culturally our community of faith, and where they stand is rock solid now, the amazing thing is that it is the western church that brought this Christianity to us. </p>
<p>We believed it, we are practicing it, and now the western church is advocating for something which is contrary to what their ancestors brought us.</p>
<p>Supplementary Question from Riazat Butt of the Guardian:</p>
<p>I'd like to come back on the question asked by Iain Baxter earlier.. I didn't actually hear you condemn at all the rapes of gays and lesbians in your countries. He wasn't asking you if you could change government legislation he was asking you whether the Gospel had been compromised by the way they had been treated. Is there something in Christianity about forgiveness?</p>
<p>HO: If you were for the Shogah in Kampala a few weeks ago the gay demonstrated in the country and they were not arrested. The gay led a press conference and they were not arrested.</p>
<p>RB: We're not talking about freedom of expression, he was specifically referring to the use of torture and rape.</p>
<p>HO: I would not believe a thing like that is done in the public knowledge of the people of Uganda because the gay people who are Ugandans are citizens of the country and we would cherish the fact that we would want to send it our people. For some of those things probably you get information in England and we may not even get information, I don't know how they get their information.</p>
<p>Archbishop of Sydney, Peter Jenson:</p>
<p>Can I add to that, because I think it needs to be said, on behalf of these brothers, if not by themselves, any violence against any person, is in Christian terms wrong, and that the suggestion that these things occur, which of course occur in the west, it's not just an African problem, if they occur in the west, if they occur in Australia, I would be the first to condemn it.</p>
<p>I certainly have public condemned and will continue to publicly condemn any violence against any people and in particular gay and lesbian people. I am certain that this is, I understand, what Archbishop Orombi says and that is exactly the position and I am very glad that this opportunity has arisen for the question to be raised again because I thought it was not answered in the answers which were being given to the others side of the question. But I think I am right in speaking for all of us here and, indeed, if that were not the case I would certainly stand alone here and say it but I am sure I speak for all in saying that any such violence, any such behaviour within the prison system, for Christians of another variety, or whatever, is condemned by us.</p>
<p><strong><em><a href="http://books.ekklesia.co.uk/product_info.php?products_id=2255">Fear or Freedom? Why a warring church must change</a></em>, edited by Simon Barrow, is published by Shoving Leopard / Ekklesia on 30 June 2008.</strong></p>
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<!-- google_ad_section_end -->Religion and SocietyNews Briefarchbishop akinolaarchbishop of nigeriaarchbishop of ugandaarchbishop orombicriminalise gays and lesbiansgafcongaysGlobal Anglican Future ConferenceHenry OrombihomophobiaLambeth ConferencelesbiansnigeriaPeter AkinolaUgandavioWorld NewsMon, 23 Jun 2008 17:31:13 +0000staff writers7356 at http://www.ekklesia.co.ukJerusalem bishop calls for Anglican peace as 'alternative' conference meetshttp://www.ekklesia.co.uk/node/7346
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<p>The Anglican Bishop in Jerusalem, Suheil Dawani, has called on participants in the conservative Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON) to approach their summit in a spirit of "peace, reconciliation and goodwill."</p>
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<p>The Anglican Bishop in Jerusalem, Suheil Dawani, has called on participants in the conservative Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON) to approach their summit in a spirit of "peace, reconciliation and goodwill." </p>
<p>He says that that "it is crucial to the Anglican witness here in Jerusalem and to the wider world that this is so."</p>
<p>Bishop Dawani, who has expressed concerns that the June 22-29 conference would import "inter-Anglican conflict" into his diocese and made earlier calls for it to be moved, addressed GAFCON participants during a June 22 service of Evening Prayer at St George's Anglican Cathedral in Jerusalem.</p>
<p>Describing the Anglican community in the Holy Land as "orthodox," Dawani told ENS: "We do not agree with recent developments in the Episcopal Church concerning sexuality, but that is not going to divide us. Unity is at the heart of the gospel and we as indigenous Christians in this Holy Land are committed to the work of peace, justice and reconciliation."</p>
<p>Expected to draw more than 1,000 conservative Anglicans, including some 280 bishops, the GAFCON summit is viewed by some critics as a "divisive event" and a rival to the 2008 Lambeth Conference, but is described by its organizers as an opportunity to develop a "renewed understanding of our<br />
identity as Anglican Christians."</p>
<p>Among GAFCON's participants are Episcopal Church bishops Keith Ackerman of Quincy, Jack Iker of Fort Worth, Peter Beckwith of Springfield, Bob Duncan of Pittsburgh, five Anglican primates and several former Episcopalians, some of whom have been consecrated as bishops in other Anglican provinces but are not officially recognized as such by the Archbishop of Canterbury.</p>
<p>GAFCON also brings together several Anglican breakaway groups that have formed in recent years.</p>
<p>Refuting claims that GAFCON is about schism, Iker told Episcopal News Service in the USA that the conference is "all about a renewal of confidence in Anglicanism."</p>
<p>Ackerman said that some of the bishops at GAFCON will also be attending the Lambeth Conference. "If this is a rival to Lambeth, nobody told us," he said.</p>
<p>During his address, Dawani underscored his commitment to the Lambeth Conference, emphasizing that the once-a-decade gathering of bishops, set for 16 July - 3 August in Canterbury, England, "is so important to our ongoing life together and for the mission of the church."</p>
<p><em>With acknowledgments to ENS.</em></p>
<p><strong>Ekklesia's latest book, <em><a href="http://books.ekklesia.co.uk/product_info.php?products_id=2255">Fear or freedom? Why a warring church must change</a></em>, edited by Simon Barrow, is published by Shoving Leopard on 30 June 2008.</strong></p>
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<!-- google_ad_section_end -->Religion and SocietyNews Briefarchbishop of canterburygafconGlobal Anglican Future ConferencejerusalemLambeth Conferencerowan williamsWorld NewsMon, 23 Jun 2008 08:26:42 +0000agency reporter7346 at http://www.ekklesia.co.uk